PSE&G Building Decarbonization — Dual Heat

PSE&G Building Decarbonization — Dual Heat

What it covers

The middle tier of PSE&G's Building Decarbonization (BD) program. Dual Heat pays a homeowner to add a heat pump while keeping their existing fossil heating system as backup — a hybrid configuration where the heat pump is primary and fossil heat kicks in only at extreme cold or as a fallback.

• Base: 50% of project cost up to $5,000.
• LMI: 60% of project cost up to $6,000 (income-qualified — household income at or below $80,000).

Adders stack on top:

• $2,000 per additional ccASHP (cold-climate air-source heat pump) unit.
• $1,500 integrated controls allowance (for smart switching between heat pump and fossil backup).

OBR financing available up to $50,000 for the remaining project cost.

Eligibility

• Active PSE&G electric residential account.
• Single-family, townhomes, or multi-family up to 4 units.
• Retrofit only — not eligible for new construction.
• Existing fossil heating system stays in place as backup; heat pump added as primary or secondary heat source.
• Equipment must meet PSE&G's cold-climate ASHP spec.
• LMI tier ($6K) requires income verification through PSE&G's process.

Stacks with

• NJ Whole Home Energy Solutions runs as a concurrent but separate project. Heating/cooling comes out of Whole Home scope when BD covers it — reducing the Whole Home rebate but adding the BD rebate. Per rules/bd-stackability-rules.md, the two rebates do NOT sum; agent presents the split-scope trade-off.
• OBR financing stacks with Whole Home up to $75,000 combined ($25K + this program's $50K cap). Financing stacks even though rebates don't.

Does NOT stack with

• PSE&G BD Clean Heat — same exclusiveGroup: "pseg-bd". Engine picks the highest-value BD program per project (so Clean Heat at $10K wins over Dual Heat at $5K when both technically apply).
• PSE&G BD Hybrid Heat — same exclusive group; mutually exclusive with Dual Heat.
• PSE&G $900 equipment-only heat pump rebate — conservative default per bd-stackability-rules: do not assume both apply to the same heat pump install.

Edge cases

• LMI surfacing: $6K tier should be presented as upsell, not headline ("you may qualify for $6,000 if household income is under $80K — verified during your free consultation"). Never apply to default headline numbers.
• Why pick Dual Heat over Clean Heat: a homeowner whose existing fossil system has many years of life left and who isn't ready to scrap it — Dual Heat lets them get most of the heating from the heat pump while keeping the fossil backup as a hedge.
• Integrated controls adder: the $1,500 adder requires installing smart controls that intelligently switch between heat pump and fossil backup based on outdoor temperature and energy cost. Not every install qualifies.
• Engine deduplication: when the homeowner is technically eligible for both Clean Heat and Dual Heat (e.g., they could go either way), the engine surfaces only Clean Heat as the higher-value option.

Recommended for

• PSE&G electric customers who want heat pump benefits but aren't ready to fully retire their fossil system (e.g., recently installed boiler, redundancy preference, comfort during deep cold).
• Homeowners in older homes where envelope improvements are limited and a fossil backup adds resilience for sub-10°F days.
• Use as a fallback in the agent's reasoning when Clean Heat is ruled out (e.g., homeowner explicitly says "I want to keep my gas furnace").